There is currently no commercial deep-sea mining happening ... Mining could even affect the “dark oxygen” scientists recently discovered is produced by nodules, which they say could help ...

According to a new study, just 0.001% of the deep seafloor has been visually observed. The deep ocean seafloor is defined as depths of 200 meters or more below Earth’s surface, where oxygen ...

The researchers point out that these little-known areas could provide the planet with climate regulation, a source of oxygen production ... also warned that new deep-sea mining could disturb ...

Oxygen seeps ... harm these deep-sea ecosystems before their value and workings are fully understood. Seafloor mining could target three kinds of metal-rich deposits: nodules, crusts and mounds.

Large swathes of the deep-sea floor contain nodules of the critical minerals cobalt, copper, manganese and nickel. "This is an exciting opportunity for the U.S.," Gerard Baron, CEO of The Metals ...

President Donald Trump is trying to fast track a brand new, highly controversial industry – mining critical minerals in the deep sea. Trump signed ... metric tons of nodules, or deposits ...

Deep-sea mining isn’t a new idea. The HMS Challenger research expedition discovered polymetallic nodules—the metal lumps mining operations are now targeting in the Pacific—in the 1870s.

They include China, which has invested billions in deep-sea research, and Japan, which has collected nodules in trials around ... It is cold, short of oxygen, has no light and contends with ...